Brian Goudie outside a pub in Pattaya, Thailand, where he is accused of running a fake law firm. Picture: Andrew Drummond

ANDREW DRUMMOND AND GARETH ROSE

A SCOT is wanted by police in Thailand after failing to appear in court to answer charges of fraudulently posing as a lawyer.

Brian Goldie, 47, from Falkirk, who practises under the name Brian Goudie, is accused of ­conning an American woman out of £180,000.

He was due to appear at the Provincial Court in Pattaya, ­yesterday to submit himself for trial and pay bail. When he did not appear the court issued an order for his ­arrest.

Lawyers for Barbara Fannelli Miller, aged 75, from Madison, Wisconsin, had requested a bail figure commensurate with the offence. They have also sought assurances from Thailand’s immigration department he will not be allowed to leave the country before the trial finishes.

Mr Goldie had agreed to represent Mrs Miller’s son, Gregory, who had obtained a job teaching at an international school near Pattaya. Miller, 46, was arrested and charged with paying for sex with under-aged boys.

It is alleged Mr Goldie agreed to represent her son and claimed he would get him discharged from the child sexual abuse offences. However, Miller was later jailed for 39 years.

Mr Goldie allegedly claims to often fly back to the UK to represent clients in the High Court in Edinburgh, as well as the High Court and Old Bailey in London.

However, the Law Society of Scotland confirmed no Brian Goldie, or Brian Goudie, had ever been registered with them as a practising solicitor.

Mr Goldie also allegedly claimed he was a former officer in the Royal Marines, who had been injured in action.

He is also scheduled to surrender to the Pattaya Court, on 18 February, to face more charges of taking pecuniary advantage, claiming he was a barrister with a law degree from Edinburgh University.

In that case, Briton John Jepson alleges Goudie acted under false pretences, posing as a British barrister, in order to take him on as a client. It is said he was instructed to get back seven condominiums the estate agent had been defrauded of by another conman in Pattaya, and paid £60,000 in total.

Mr Goldie set up a law office called Alba Laws with a Thai woman called Sukanya Worakam, 30, a former girlfriend. An arrest warrant has also been issued for her.

Among the evidence against Mr Goldie is a videotape recording, in which he is allegedly to say: “Perverts, I am making so much money [from them]. It’s like there is no tomorrow.”

Mr Goldie had previously been in trouble with the law.

As Brian Goldie, he was jailed for six years in 2000 for stealing more than AUS $400,000 (£210,725) from his employers, a West Australia mining company at Perth District Court.

Deputy Judge SA Forgie of the Australian Appeals Tribunal rejected his appeal to stay in Australia, describing him as “not a person of honest character”.